


Scars

by rosesupposes



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: All the de Rolos really, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24794728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesupposes/pseuds/rosesupposes
Summary: Vax’s mother knelt down in front of him, putting a hand on his cheek. “I know your sister has been getting soul marks for years but that doesn’t make your first any less important. You’ve someone to love someday, Vax. That’s very important.”The lead up to Vax and Percy's inevitable relationship, as told by the scars they find on their bodies that aren't their own.
Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vax'ildan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 130





	Scars

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this what feels like a million years ago based on a tumblr post from a million years ago that I can't find no matter how hard I try. Here it is, since I keep going back but can't seem to finish it. Idk, it's not great.

“Oh. Percy’s got one.”

Percy looked up from the picture he was drawing. “I got what, ’lus?”

“On his shoulder.”

“What’s on my shoulder?”

Vesper came over to him. She put all of her six years into looking imperious. She poked him on the shoulder. “It’s a love scar.”

Percy looked at his shoulder as best he could. There was an angry red mark on his shoulder. It didn’t hurt at all but Percy panicked. He didn’t get any booboos today! Where did this come from? He started crying. “Mooooooooooommy! Daaaaaaaaaaddy!”

Percy’s mommy ran in from the next room over. “What in Pelor’s- Julius, Vesper, why is your brother crying?”

“Dunno.”

“We saw his love scar!”

“Mommy, I gots a booboo but I- I- I-“

Mommy scooped Percy into her arms and sat in one of the fluffy arm chairs with him in her lap. “Oh, baby. That’s not a booboo.”

“It’s- it’s not?”

Mommy started carding his hand through Percy’s hair. “Oh, no, sweetheart. It’s a love scar.”

“A love scar?”

“Yes. A love scar. Everybody has someone they’re going to marry one day. They’re your soulmate- someone for you to love.”

“Are you and daddy soulmates?”

“Yes, we are. Soulmates have a special connection. When they get a very bad booboo, you know.”

“So my soulmate got a booboo today?”

“Yes, baby, but you’re safe and so are they. Does it hurt when you touch it?”

Percy pushed his hand into the red mark. It hurt like he had a bruise. “Only a little.”

“That’s normal, baby. Love scars always hurt a teeny bit at first but it won’t hurt at all tomorrow.”

“Okay, mommy. I draw again now?”

“Sure, baby. Go back to your drawing.”

-

Vax raced past his sister into the kitchen. “Mama! We got the vegetables. Vex got them for four copper pieces instead of six!”

Vax’s mother turned around to face them as Vex ran into the kitchen, grinning. “Did you, darling?”

Vex nodded. “Yes, mama. Mr. Mollway told me I drive a hard bargain and he even threw in a few strawberries. And Vax’s soulmate got hurt.”

Vax’s eyes widened. “What?”

Vex grinned at her brother as she started washing the vegetables, the kind of grin that kind of made Vax want to punch her. Of course she’d noticed before him. She noticed nearly everything before him. “Oh did you miss it, brother? There’s a burn and a scratch on your left hand.”

His mom crowded around him, reaching for his hand. “Oh, Vax, darling, let me see.”

Vax rolled his eyes but showed her his hand. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Oh, but it is, Vax. It’s your first soul mark. It’s important.” Vax rolled his eyes again. “Vax’ildan, you stop rolling your eyes at me, young man, or they’ll get stuck that way.” 

Vex stuck her tongue out at Vax and he made a face back at her. “It’s not. Vex already has like a thousand.” Vex had so many scratch-like soul marks on her body that their mother joked that her soulmate must live in a thorn bush.

Vex took a large bite of a strawberry. “It’s true.”

“Vex’ahlia, stop that or you’ll ruin your dinner. Finish washing those and then grab the laundry from the line outside please. We’re to have visitors tomorrow and I won’t have the house looking a mess.”

“Yes, mama. The vegetables are done.” Vax watched his sister leave their small house.

Vax’s mother knelt down in front of him, putting a hand on his cheek. “I know your sister has been getting soul marks for years but that doesn’t make your first any less important. You’ve someone to love someday, Vax. That’s very important.”

Vax stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “I don’t need them. I have you and Vex to love, mama.”

“I love you too, baby.” His mother smiled at him, her eyes shining. “Well, we should start dinner or your sister will go mad with hunger.”

-

Percy woke up the morning of his tenth birthday with a new love scar. He wasn’t one for mirrors until he actually got dressed so he didn’t notice it until he joined his family for breakfast. 

“Oh, Percy- you’ve got a new love scar!” Whitney shouted with delight. 

Julius looked up from some sort of paper he was reading. “Look at that. Right on the cheek. Well, it can’t make your face any worse,” he teased.

“What?” Percy picked up a silver goblet and glanced into it. Right there on his cheek was a scratch, more like a something had dug into his cheek- well, rather, his soulmate’s cheek. “I guess I do.

“I wonder what it’s from,” said Whitney, dreamily. “It doesn’t look like it hurt very much.”

Percy held his hand up to his cheek, pressing the new mark. It still felt bruised meaning it had probably happened only a few hours ago. 

“It looks like a ring made it.” Vesper had apparently deemed to look up from her book to look intensely at Percy’s cheek through her glasses. “A big one. Maybe a seal or a signet ring.”

Julius looked at his sister in amazement. “How could you possibly discern that?”

Vesper raised her book. It was some kind of study on love scars. “I’ve been trying to figure out the new scar on my leg. This journal is fascinating. A man documented all these different kind of scars he saw in his travels. It’s very useful.”

“Really?” asked Oliver, suddenly piping up from where his head had been laying on top of his arms. “Is it bloody? Can I see?”

Percy took a sip of the hot cocoa one of the servants placed in front of him. His siblings were so weird.

-

Vax snuck into his sister’s room just as the sun was rising. He had planned a surprise for her on their mother’s birthday but first he was going to have some fun. He climbed onto the end of her bed, a glass of water in one hand and a cup of flour in the other. In one smooth motion he dumped the cup of flour over her face and followed it with the cup of water. “Good morning, sister,” he sang as he dropped off the end of the bed and hid.

Vex’ahlia, for her part, jolted upward with a shout before calming herself and wiping the flour goo from her eyes. “Vax, you ass.” Vax didn’t say anything. “I can see you, you idiot. You have too much hair.”

Vax jumped up from behind the end of her bed and grinned at his sister. “Get dressed. I have a surprise for you.”

Vex glanced out the window. “What the hell, Vax? It’s like dawn.”

“Come on, sis. I worked really hard to plan this.”

“What are you even-” Vex’s eyes narrowed, usually not a good sign for Vax. “What’s that on your arms?”

Vax looked at his arms. Sure enough there were several new angry red marks, slashes as though from a sword fight. “Oh. Well.”

Vex started laughing. “Dear gods, Vax. Your soulmate is as awful with a sword as you are.”

Vax rolled his eyes as his sister slowly dissolved into hysterics and turned to leave Vex’s room, tossing back a quick “You better go clean up. You’ve got something on your face.”

-

Cassandra was happy that Vesper had finally found her soulmate. After years of her obsessively reading through books on scars, obsessively searching for things about her future soulmate, she had finally met him, the second son of a noble family with seven children. It was a hilarious parallel but it made all the sense in the world. In the end, most of the little information she had gleaned from her books had turned out to be true. It was the small things- he had learned to swordfight, had once been scratched by a large animal. Vesper’s soulmate, it turned out, was just as obsessed with love scars as she was. It was a perfect match but Cassandra was absolutely overwhelmed by the celebration that was taking over Whitestone Castle- it wasn’t exactly the type of event meant for an eleven year old. 

Cassandra almost jumped when someone slid an arm around her shoulder. She pushed her brother away almost immediately. “Percy, you jerk!”

He held a hand up in surrender and offered a small plate of cheese in the other. “I brought you cheese. And an excuse to leave the party.”

“An excuse?”

“Yes. Let’s go swimming.”

“Swimming?”

“Yes, I told mother. We have an out.”

Cass wrapped her arms around Percy’s waist. “Best older brother ever.” 

Percy grinned at her. “Go change into your swimming costume. I’ll meet you at the front door.”

“Best. Older. Brother. Ever.” Cassandra stretched up on her toes and kissed Percy on the cheek- quite the feat considering he was almost eight inches taller than her. She ran to her room and changed faster than she ever had. She was at the door to meet Percy before he was there.

“C’mon, Cass,” he says, racing past her and pulling at her hair. “I’ll race you to the pond!”

“No fair! You have a head start!” Cass laughed as she raced after Percy. He had longer legs but she was definitely faster and his head start meant that they reached the pond at roughly the same time. Percy didn’t hesitate before throwing his shirt off and jumping into the water so Cass howled as she followed suit, jumping dangerously close to where he had landed. She swung her arms around his shoulders and he grabbed her and lifted her up before slamming her into the water. Despite her greatest efforts, Cass squealed as she entered the water.

Percy spent a few more minutes tossing Cassandra around in the water before he swam into a corner of the pond and declared, “Okay, Cass. I’m not that strong.”

Cassandra took a few deep breaths to calm herself after Percy stopped throwing her around. Her stomach hurt from laughing so hard. She watched Percy swim around for a moment as she tread water. A mark on the nape of his neck caught her attention. She pushed off a rock at the side of the pond to swim over to him. She grabbed onto his shoulder. “Let me see your back.”

“What are you-”

“Shhh. Let me see.” Cass inspected the mark on Percy’s neck, a twisted, slightly angry red mark. “You have a new love scar.”

Percy pushed her away gently. “What? What’s it look like?”

Cass drew a crude drawing in the mud. “It looks like this, like it’s carved intentionally.”

Percy gave her a look. “You’ve been listening too much to Vesper.”

An excitement grew within Cassandra- she had exactly one love scar of her own, whereas Percy’s body was littered with them. She loved researching them to figure out what they might be. “We should go check her books! It’s got to be an organization. It could be like a ring of spies or a merchant’s guild or something! Percy, this is the most information we could know!” She grabbed his arm and gave him what she knew was her most irresistible pleading face. “Please. Let’s go look at Vesper’s books!”

Percy sighed but smiled the smile that let Cass know that she had won. “Fine, let’s go. But we’ll have to change again.”

-

Vex was exhausted. A day of hunting had produced not quite as much meat as she had hoped for. It was enough for what she had promised her clients but she had been hoping for enough to feed her and Vax a little extra as well. Oh well. They’d have the coin to keep their place at the inn and feed themselves enough to survive. Vex worked her way around town for another two hours before she’d gotten rid of her take for the day. 

She quite liked Stillbend. It was a fairly quiet town but it gave her and Vax a place to stay and her an honest day’s work. She had people paying her for the game she shot and she and Vax shared a tiny room at the top floor of an inn in exchange for meat and a tiny amount of coin. Vax continued with his usual, random job boards and picking pockets on the side. It wasn’t the life of adventure they wanted or the life of comfort she sometimes allowed herself to dream about but it worked and there was room for Trinket in the stables behind the inn, when the barkeep’s wife insisted he couldn’t stay in their room.

After her last delivery, Vex counted out the coin and found a little more than she expected. She parsed it out between two coin purses and stopped at Stillbend’s only sweet shop to find some of the candy that Vax liked. He’d stolen her some fancy chocolates from a travelling salesman he’d seen being an asshole to some kids and she owed him.

She swung the door to their room at the inn open. “Vax, I’m home! I stopped by- oh my gods.” 

Vax was passed out on the bed in the center of the room, his hair sprawled out across the pillow. He was sweating profusely and deathly still, though he was making small uncomfortable noises. Every noise was accompanied by a fresh red mark across Vax’s bare chest.

Oh gods. Vax’s soulmate was- Vex wanted to puke. Instead she rushed to Vax’s side, sitting on the bed near his head. “Vax? Vax, can you hear me?” Vax didn’t answer.

Vex tried not to panic. Logically she knew that her brother wasn’t actually hurting, that the scars forming across his chest were actually his soulmate’s but that didn’t help. Something awful was happening to her brother’s soulmate- so awful that her brother was feeling something and had passed out. For all Vex knew Vax’s soulmate was dying. No one could lose as much blood as those scars meant and live and Vex had no idea what happened if a soulmate died traumatically before you met them. She could only think of two options; either Vax died when his soulmate did or Vax lived his life without his soulmate and either of those options made Vex want to puke again. She didn’t know what to do but she knew puking wouldn’t be helpful so she just sat, combing her hand through Vax’s hair and alternating between whispering comforting words and singing their mother’s old lullabies while crying a lot and trying not to panic too much.

Vax woke up just before sunrise, blinking blearily. “Vex?”

Vex startled slightly, from where she’d been practically falling asleep against the wall. “Vax, oh my gods, Vax. You’re awake.”

“What- what happened?” Vax could barely keep his eyes opened.

“Shhh, brother. Everything’s alright. Go back to sleep. Everything’s fine.”

“’Kay, Vex. G’night.” Vax rolled over, making himself comfortable with his head in Vex’s lap. 

Vex watched him fall asleep and then let go of the breath she had been holding and settled against the wall to sleep.

-

Percy had spent days in the cell now- if you could really call it a cell. He was mostly just in a basement. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was verging on delirious now. Ripley hadn’t been to see him and the only human contact he’d had for days was the guard who had brought him a small roll of bread and some water each day. 

None of that mattered though- not in the face of the nightmares. They were returning- after several months of little to no nightmares suddenly Percy was reliving everything from saying goodnight to the Briarwoods to the sword through Oliver’s stomach to the hours of torture to the arrows in Cassandra’s back. There was always a dark voice in the background, seemingly coming from a column of smoke, pushing him towards revenge.

The door to the basement opened and the guard tossed the loaf of bread down the stairs. “Here ya go, whitey.” A cup was placed just at the end of the staircase. Percy was reminded once again that he had lost the last bit of his mother’s family- the chocolate brown hair he’d inherited over his father’s blond, something he'd shared only with Cassandra. His hair was now a shocking and disconcerting white, cut shorter than he’d ever worn it before. He hated it- he could hide the scars but his hair was now a constant reminder of that night.

Percy swallowed down the bread as quickly as he could followed by downing about half of the water. He knew from experience that he’d probably want more later and that too much water on a stomach of only bread was not necessarily pleasant.

After his brief meal, Percy tried to distract himself, imagining what he would do if- when, he tried to tell himself- he got out of here. In his mind, his escape included the death of his captors but if it didn’t- well, he’d just dreamed of plans for a newer weapon, a better one. Its creation would take some work but he was certain he could do it.

Without the benefit of a clock or any ability to see the sun, Percy drifted in and out of sleep all day. It was easy enough to tell when any of the guards were coming. They were loud and the door to his underground cell did not unlock quietly.

Which is probably why he felt so startled when he awoke to a face above him wreathed in white and black hair.

“Who- who are you?”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at rosesupposes.


End file.
